Another CC poster posted this on last year’s UCB discussion thread. I believe a student that has access to Cal Answers took a screen shot and forwarded it to them.
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I am not the person who posted the picture, I had a question on it which I had asked so I do not know the source.
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@Gumbymom do you think someone at UCB has actually read the application that quickly to trigger a request for LOR? My daughter submitted her application on Saturday night and by end of Monday got the ask to submit LOR. She doesn’t really fit any of the categories that UCB mentions as usually being targets for Augmented Review. Her older brother also got the request two years ago (and did submit letters but only got waitlisted lol). Part of me wonders if they do some sort of automated review and ask for letters from kids local to the Berkeley area since it seems pretty common here. I’m just not sure what to make of it and whether she should submit two academic teachers vs. 1 academic teacher + a letter from someone who has worked with her for more years in her main, lifelong extracurricular. Wish there was a way to know why the request gets triggered so we could better understand what kind of letter would be helpful.
My kid picked one academic teacher (in a subject related to his major), and an extracurricular teacher who has known him for 5 years and can speak to leadership, community involvement, personal qualities etc.
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Yeah – absent being able to divine additional detail about why she got asked for LOR, I think that’s probably what my daughter will do. Thanks!
Right now, it seems to me that these instant LOR requests may be going to kids from certain high schools. And maybe this is also filtered by GPA. My son said that it seems like all of his friends at school have also been asked for LORs… these are relatively high GPA kids, at a large and very diverse school.
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I do not work in admissions but I am assuming that there are specific key words or questions on the UC application when submitted will trigger an automated flag which generates an LOR request?
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That sort of rings true to our experience. There just definitely seem to be more than 15% from our high school, and they mainly seem to be high-GPA-ish kids so I do wonder if the school itself is the trigger. Also a large, diverse public high school (and local).
Sounds reasonable. Maybe the school in the past has been academically competitive, so everyone’s GPA is around the same level, thus they need more ‘off-paper’ evidence like LORs, activities, awards, to differentiate?
Just my two cents.
From the BOARS report which I believe was posted earlier in this discussion:
In the fall 2021 cycle, Berkeley gave 16,783 applicants, or 12.42% of the pool, the opportunity to submit a letter of recommendations. Of those applicants, 4,937 submitted, and 2,854 (58%) were admitted. Those admitted were:
● First Generation College-Going: 2,581
● From an LCFF+ high school: 1,290
● Received an application waiver: 2,547
● Underrepresented Minority:
○ African American: 235 ○ Chicano/Latino: 1,621 ○ Native American: 14
○ Pacific Islander: 9
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Hi,
I submitted my application near the beginning of November this year and also received a request to submit LORs from Berkeley. My guess is that I probably got the request because I highlighted the lack of AP classes that my school offered. My high school is a small urban public school (~600 students). I am also wondering what the specific reason could be for receiving this request.
Thanks
The Augmented Review pool should be limited in size to no more than 15 percent of all applicants.
The criteria for referring an applicant for Augmented Review include the following:
- Evidence of focus on an area of special talent which may have limited a student’s time to participate in a broader range of activities.
- Evidence of character traits that imply a strong likelihood of making a significant contribution to campus life.
- Evidence of significant academic achievement or the potential for academic achievement at the University in spite of extraordinary or compound disadvantage or learning difference, or physical disability or other unusual circumstances.
- Evidence of significant improvement in the academic record accompanied by one or both of the following: (1) reasons for the initial poor performance; and (2) sustained and in-depth participation in educational outreach programs, which demonstrate the applicant’s commitment to succeed academically within a challenging environment.
- Evidence of relative lack of access to, counseling about, or support to take college preparatory, honors, Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) classes or required college entrance examinations.
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I submitted my app to Berkeley on 28th and my application is submitted but not forwarded to the campus. What should I do?
It can take a couple of days after submission before the application is forwarded to each campus especially when submitting near the deadline. As long as you have the email confirmation that the application has been submitted, it will be fine.
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yes I do have the email confirmation.
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daughter received email confirmation and portal info a few days ago. no LOR request
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Thanks so much for the data – I had seen that referenced earlier but didn’t really crunch the numbers until you posted it here and it ironically has me wishing we knew the admit data for kids who were invited to submit letters but did NOT submit anything. It looks like just over 1 in 4 submit the letters (wow, seems low!) and initially seems positive that close to 60% of those were admitted. But then…90+% of those admitted from the group who submitted LOR are 1st Generation college students. That doesn’t describe my daughter or any of her friends who have been invited to submit, so I almost wonder if it would be better NOT to send letters – like maybe having letters puts you in a different pool for review and if you aren’t a 1st Gen student your chances are even lower than the general admit rate!?
I’m sure that’s overthinking it as they wouldn’t want to design a LOR process that might DISADVANTAGE you, but I think I’ll ask her to talk with the counselors at the HS college and career center to see what they know. Since it’s the local public HS closest to campus maybe they actually know some people at UCB admissions who could explain more.
I only have n=1 from her older brother having gotten that same request and it not ending well (would have been the fall 2021 year the data is from, so I guess he shouldn’t feel too bad being in that 90% that didn’t get in after submitting LOR!). I just am realizing that my initial “well, she must not be rejected out of hand so that’s good” is probably too rosy an assessment.
Anyway, just thinking aloud – thanks again for your help.
I believe my kid is at the same HS, and his teachers (who are sending the LORs) seemed to think it was a good idea to submit them.
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My opinion regarding LOR’s (as long as they positive) are they could only help UCB with their admission decision. It is not a negative if you do not submit but why not show UCB why your student would be a good fit.
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I’m sure that’s right, so she’ll do it regardless. Hearing that @tamagotchi’s student is likely at the same school does make me think there’s a particular trigger for the local HS, which makes a certain amount of sense. I guess we’ll know soon enough! Thx.
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